Endeavour, the prequel to the beloved Inspector Morse series of the 90s, is over on PBS. One thing the young Morse and the old Morse have in common is that they are profoundly single. They may work with married partners who have families, but they themselves are lonely bachelors.
It seems that brilliant detectives with obsessive addictions, such as Wagner and crossword puzzles, just don’t make good family types. Sherlock Holmes and Hercules Poirot are both single. Miss Marple, conveniently, lost her would-be husband in World War I. One wonders if she’d been so brilliant a sleuth if she’d married him.
Most great fictional detectives are unmarried. Why is that? I myself am married with children. I have never solved a single murder.
